1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multi-part mailing form for use with a non-impact printer, and more particularly, to an airbill form which may be used for addressing packages sent by an overnight mail service.
2. Background Information
Overnight air courier services have become a common mode to send original documents and goods. Examples of such services include the Express Mail service of the United States Postal Service, Federal Express, United Parcel Service, DHL, Airborne, and many others. Most commercial air courier services utilize a similar multi-part airbill form comprising several layers of superimposed sheets, each of which must bear certain address information. The name of the shipper and the name of the recipient are printed once and appear on all sheets of the airbill form.
Current multi-part airbill forms typically have four sheets: one sheet for the sender, one sheet for the recipient signature as a proof of receipt, one sheet for the package, and one sheet for the air courier's billing department. Many of the various multi-part airbill forms used by air courier services have a peel away backing which exposes a pressure sensitive adhesive for affixing the airbill form to the package being sent.
In order to use these airbill forms, it is necessary to inscribe the addresses of both the recipient and the sender on each of the sheets of the airbill form. Carbon paper or coatings of microcapsules are normally used to permit the user to add the information only one time on the top sheet and still have it appear on the remaining sheets. Nevertheless, the address information must be added to the airbill form by either a typewriter, an impact printer, or by hand. Most offices today utilize computers because of their well-known advantages over typewriters and manually prepared documents. Further, most computer systems used in offices are linked to a non-impact type printer, such as the laser printer or ink jet printer, because of the speed and quiet operation of non-impact printers compared to the older impact printers or typewriters.
Because of the non-impact type of printing equipment used in modern offices, the address information added to air courier airbill forms must be done manually. This results in inefficient use of time if done by typewriter or, if done by hand, can leave the air courier company with the problem of reading the handwriting of someone else. Though manually adding the address information to airbill forms may be done easily enough where a small number of packages are to be sent, it is very inefficient where a large number of packages are to be sent. In the latter case, it is desirable to use a computer and associated printer to prepare the airbill forms. For example, where a mail order vendor ships merchandise by overnight air courier, many hundreds or thousands of airbill forms must be prepared daily and manual preparation of the airbill forms is very tedious and difficult. With current airbill forms, the only manner of using a computer is to utilize an impact printer, which is both slow and noisy. Non-impact printers, which are faster and quieter than impact printers, cannot be used because of the requirement to have the address information on each sheet of the existing multi-part airbill forms.
What is needed is an air courier airbill form which can be printed using a non-impact printer.